The scene is the undergraduate engineering Physics I class reserved for like the top 5% of math SAT scorers. There was the standard treatment of Newtons laws, and of course that calibur of nerds could recite it already in the 6th grade, so it was to be a real quick lesson. A really long balloon, like six feet long was to be inflated using a compressor and let fly around the auditorium, illustrating Newtonian physics principles(3rd law?). Anyhoo(IMAO rocks), the compressor didnt work. So somebody said, 'Well use the gas spigot' (This was one of those chemistry building auditoriums with the obligatory natural gas spigots). And of course, somebody else '...And light it!' And the professors eyes lit up and he said 'Yeahhhh!' and so it was to proceed like that.